Arden was smart.But her question wasn't. Still, I didn’t want to be a dick about it, so I explained, "Your number's in my phone, so to answer your question, I didn't have both – my celloryour number."
In the end, I'd gotten her phone number from the production company after findingtheirnumber on the rental car paperwork. The trip itself wasn't for fun, and the missing phone wasn't helping.
And now, Arden was saying, "Then maybe you should've learned it by heart."
"Is that so?" I asked, "Do you knowmynumber by heart?"
She paused. "What?"
"My cell number," I said. "What is it?" When I heard fumbling on the other end, I added, "And don't look in your contacts. That's cheating."
"Cheating, huh?" With a sleepy laugh, she said, "Well, that's rich."
"Meaning?"
"Forget it."
I didn't like where this was going. "What, you think I'm cheating on you?"
"Oh, please," she scoffed. "You can't 'cheat' if we're just screwing around, right?"
I gripped the phone tighter. "What?"
"Sorry," she said. "What Imeantto say is, wewerescrewing around, as in past tense."
Fuck.
Okay, I realized that I had some explaining to do, but the more she talked, the more aggravatedIwas getting, too. "Listen—"
"No.Youlisten," she said. "Whatever you're up to, I don't care. I just want to buy the house and be done with it, okay?"
What the hell?
Again, with the house?
I asked, "What are you getting at?"
"Just what I said. I want to buy it."
"With what?"
"Money," she said. "What else?"
"I already told you, you can't afford it."
"That's whatyouthink."
"Wrong," I told her. "It's what Iknow."
"No.You'rewrong," she said. "After I get my bonus—"
"Forget the bonus," I said. "You'd need double that for just the down payment."
"Excellent," she said. "Because I have it. There, it's settled."
Settled, my ass.There was no way on Earth that Arden had come up with that kind of money in less than a day.She was bluffing.
She had to be.
